Panthers To Host Southern Illinois Wednesday in Women’s Basketball Invitational

Milwaukee makes second-straight postseason berth

MILWAUKEE – For the second-straight year, the Milwaukee women's basketball team has earned the right to play in a postseason tournament.

UWM – which won 20 games for just the third time in program history this year – will host Southern Illinois Wednesday at 7 pm from the Klotsche Center in the opening round of the Women's Basketball Invitational.

Milwaukee will play in the WBI – a 16-team tournament played on campus sites – for the first time. This comes just one year after a berth to the Women's NIT, marking the first time the Panthers will play in the postseason in back-to-back years in program history.

"We're thrilled about the opportunity for our season to continue," Milwaukee head coach Kyle Rechlicz said. "I think we've been building something special here for a while now, and to make a postseason tournament two years in a row continues down that path. I'm excited that I get to continue coaching this group. We've put together 20 wins - something that's not easy to do, but I think we still have more left."

Tickets will be $6 for adults and $4 for senior citizens and youth age 17 and under. As always, students will be admitted for free with a valid student ID. There will also be a special rate of just $2 for groups of 10 or more. The Milwaukee ticket office is open daily from 9 am until 5 pm. For more information, fans can contact the ticket office at (414) 229-5886 or by email at UWMtix@uwm.edu.

The Panthers enter the WBI with a 20-11 record – marking just the third time in the program's Division I history with at least 20 wins in a single season. UWM was the No. 5 seed in last week's Horizon League Tournament, where they took down fourth-seeded Oakland by a convincing score of 82-60 before falling to eventual champ and top-seeded Green Bay by seven in the semifinals.

Southern Illinois comes to Milwaukee with a 16-14 overall record, including a 10-8 mark in the Missouri Valley. This marks the second-straight appearances in the WBI for SIU, falling just short in a 99-97 thriller in overtime last year against Western Illinois.

Wednesday's contest will be the first ever meeting between Milwaukee and Southern Illinois.

The Horizon League has had quite a bit of success in the first years of the WBI. UIC won the tournament as a No. 4 seed in 2014, and Detroit was the champion as a No. 1 seed in 2013. Last year, both Northern Kentucky and Youngstown State were part of the 16-team field, with YSU advancing to the semifinals before falling to eventual champs Lafayette.

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